Discovery Presents “Africa”

Everything you thought you knew about Africa, and then some… apparently. And you can thank Discovery for it! All the details on what to expect via press release from Discovery:

The award-winning documentary team behind the breakthrough natural history series LIFE returns with a revealing look at a seemingly familiar continent that is still holding many secrets. A Discovery Channel/BBC co-production four years in the making, AFRICA – premiering Tuesday, January 8, 2013 at 10PM E/P – is a seven-part series that brings the continent to life with never-before-filmed species, animal behaviors and secret, natural wonders of the world.

Travel to a secret location in southwest Africa to witness what could be the last great rhinoceros gathering on Earth, filmed with a newly developed camera system that is operated using the light of the stars and captures sound using microphones embedded around a watering hole. Track a teenage chimp in the Congo with a sweet tooth that drives her to perfect complicated honey-hunting techniques using four different tools. Meet some gutsy lizards who hunt for flies on the backs of sleeping lions in the Serengeti, a behavior never before captured on film. And see giraffes in a whole new way as two rival males in Namibia deliver sledgehammer-like blows on each other in a knockout fight for domination.

To capture on film these and other spectacular animal behaviors, the production team spent 1,598 days on location across 79 separate expeditions in 27 countries. They utilized 21 different types of cameras to shoot more than 2,000 hours of footage. Of the 553 cameras deployed throughout the series, only eight were lost or damaged beyond repair.

The AFRICA team's extreme efforts are chronicled in the episode Making Of Africa. Other episodes of the series uncover bizarre, brutal and newly discovered animal behaviors in the deserts of the Kalahari, the dense forests and snow-capped peaks of the Savannah, the dynamic Congo rainforest, the ever-changing climate of the Cape and the massive and parched Sahara desert. The series' seventh episode, hosted on camera by British naturalist David Attenborough, will look at how Africa is changing faster than at any time in history. The greatest and most iconic wildlife continent is at a tipping point. The animals of the next generation will face very different challenges than the ones met by their ancestors – and the animals themselves must adapt to the new landscape and changing relationship with humans.

AFRICA is a Discovery Channel/BBC co-production. For BBC, Mike Gunton is executive producer and James Honeyborne is series producer. For Discovery Channel, Robert Zakin is executive producer

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